Sawyer Personal Water Bottle SP140 Review: A Reliable Filter Bottle for Travel & Backpacking

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Sawyer is well-known and highly regarded for their lineup of portable water filtration systems and other travel and outdoor products like insect repellents, sunscreen, and first aid supplies. Although they’ve got more than half a dozen water filtration products available, including the Mini Water Filter, Micro Squeeze Water Filter, Squeeze Water Filter, Tap Water Filtration System, and One Gallon Gravity Filtration System, one product I haven’t seen very many reviews for is the Sawyer Personal Water Bottle (SP140) — a lightweight, BPA-free, all-in-one water filtration bottle with a filter rated for up to 100,000 gallons to provide clean drinking water on the go, wherever you are. 

It’s been on the market for more than a decade and a half, and my spouse and I relied on the Sawyer Personal Water Bottle Filtration System extensively during more than a year of travel across Southeast Asia, using it to drink tap water in countless places where municipal water sources are often not safe for drinking. While bottled water is widely available in many places where you’d be likely to travel, more than a million single-use plastic bottles are purchased every minute around the planet, with most never being recycled. On short trips, the impact of buying a few bottles may seem small, but over weeks or months, the waste and cost from hundreds or even thousands of bottles adds up fast. Hydration is critical, especially while trekking and walking long distances in hot, humid climates, and we wanted to ensure that we reduced our impact as much as possible while staying safe.

In this review, I’ll give my thoughts on why I think this water filter bottle by Sawyer is a great option for many travelers, backpackers, hikers, or anyone creating an emergency preparedness kit. I’ll break down how the Sawyer Bottle performed in real-world travel conditions, its durability, filtration capabilities, and whether it’s worth adding to your outdoor or travel gear. Read on!

Why the Sawyer Bottle is a Smart Choice for Travelers

A reliable water filter or other method of removing common contaminants and pathogens is essential for travelers, backpackers, and outdoor adventurers, offering a more sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bottles. The Sawyer Bottle’s 0.1-micron filter removes bacteria, protozoa, and microplastics, but it’s important to remember that no single portable filter removes all contaminants. 

Water Quality & Treatment Options

Water safety varies by location, and not all filtration systems are created equal. While filters like Sawyer’s effectively remove bacteria and protozoa with their 0.1-micron membrane, smaller contaminants like viruses, like norovirus and Hepatitis A, require a higher degree of filtration or other/additional treatment methods such as boiling, UV purification, or chemical disinfection. Heavy metals and industrial chemicals, which can be present in some water sources, aren’t removed by many filters and require activated carbon or specialized filtration. Understanding the specific risks of the water you’ll be drinking is key, and in some cases, combining methods provides the safest and most reliable solution.

Sawyer Bottle (SP140) Review: Specs & Features at a Glance

Weight: 5.5 oz
Filter Type: 0.1 Micron Absolute Hollow Fiber Membrane
Filter-Life: Up to 100,000 gallons
Bottle Material: BPA-free soft plastic
Cap Size: 63mm (fits wide-mouth bottles like Nalgene)

What It Does Remove:

• 100% of microplastics
• 99.99999% of bacteria (Salmonella, cholera, E. coli)
• 99.9999% of protozoa (Giardia, Cryptosporidium)

What It Doesn’t Remove:

• Viruses, heavy metals, chemicals 

Sawyer Bottle Performance: Real World Durability & Travel Testing

After more than a year of continuous, heavy use, the Sawyer Bottle consistently provided safe drinking water. As mentioned earlier, bottled water is often recommended for travelers, but for those on extended trips or visiting places where bottled water isn’t always accessible, having a reliable filtration bottle was invaluable. We regularly used the Sawyer to refill a 32 oz Nalgene, squeezing the soft sides to push water through the filter. While Sawyer offers other filters designed for this type of use—like the Sawyer Squeeze—we appreciated having a rugged, all-in-one bottle that fit securely in a backpack sleeve.

Our Sawyer Bottle survived months of daily use, filling it from taps across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and more. Many guesthouses and hotels provide large filtered water dispensers, but in more remote areas, having our own filtration system added peace of mind. For extra assurance, we often ran already-filtered water through the Sawyer bottle as an added layer of protection.

Using the bottle is simple: just unscrew the cap, fill it up, and drink through the straw, which pulls water through the filter. Drinking requires minimal effort, but if it becomes harder, backflushing with the included syringe restores flow. The BPA-free plastic bottle is soft enough to squeeze but tough enough to handle accidental drops and rough terrain. Ours took quite a few knocks, and while the cap did crack after a particularly hard fall, a bit of super glue kept it going strong. 

Final Thoughts: Would I Use the Sawyer Bottle Again?

For those wondering if the Sawyer Bottle is good for travel and backpacking, I think it’s a great addition to any traveler’s kit. Whether you’re a frequent backpacker or hiker, an adventurer exploring remote areas, or just looking for a reliable filter option for emergency preparedness, the Sawyer is a strong option to consider. It’s reasonably priced, built to last, and backed by a brand with a strong reputation for quality and reliability.

When shopping for a filter bottle, no matter what brand you go with, be wary of suspiciously cheap products that claim to remove all contaminants. While it would be ideal to have a compact, lightweight filter that’s effortless to drink from and eliminates every potential hazard in the water, the reality is that there will always be tradeoffs and there’s no one filter that’s perfect for every scenario.

Filters that remove bacteria and protozoa may not effectively eliminate viruses, and those that tackle heavy metals or chemicals often require additional filtration stages, which can slow water flow or increase bulk and weight. If you’re entrusting your health to a water filter, it’s essential to choose one with a strong reputation and proven, consistent performance that’s suitable for where you’re going, rather than relying on bold claims that may not hold up in real-world use. Although the Sawyer Bottle isn’t designed to filter out viruses, chemicals, or heavy metals, its long lifespan and ease of use make it a compelling choice for many travel and outdoor situations—and it’s likely what I’ll take on my next long-term trip as well, possibly paired with a SteriPEN Ultra for locations where there’s a higher risk of viral contamination in the water.